


Honesty and Ass-Kicking

by shaniacbergara



Category: Buzzfeed Ladylike (Web Series), Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), Buzzfeed: Worth It (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teachers, F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-04-20 20:49:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14269242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shaniacbergara/pseuds/shaniacbergara
Summary: Shane Madej is distracted by the gym teacher. Ryan Bergara thinks maybe history might not be so boring when it’s taught by that bean pole. Andrew Ilnyckyj can’t stop looking at that science teacher in the suits, can’t stop day dreaming about that home ec teacher in the glasses. Steven Lim wants to be everyone’s friend. There’s a rumor that Adam Bianchi hasn’t ever spoken to another teacher. Sara Rubin is perpetually exasperated by her best friend’s nonsense. Kelsey Darragh doesn’t classify herself as a relationship person, so why the hell does the photography teacher make her want to start a wedding pinterest board? Jen Ruggirello can’t seem to stop talking around the creative writing teacher, and that’s just bound to get her into trouble. Kristen Chirico is honestly just trying to keep things together. (Or: how is this high school even still functioning??)





	1. Shane and Kelsey

When Shane Madej strode into Sierra High school on September 6, he figured this year would be like any other. He was excited to get into his classes, most of which would feature familiar faces of passionate students, and he was happy to be back at work after a long and terribly dull summer, but he didn’t expect anything strange or out of the ordinary. He fully anticipated a standard year, one that would be nearly identical to the five years of teaching he had previously experienced. That expectation was thrown out the window when he ran chest first into the most beautiful man he had ever seen in his life. 

“Oh, hey, sorry!” The stranger smiled, and Shane’s knees buckled. Still, he had a reputation to maintain around here, so he fixed what he hoped looked like an intimidating scowl onto his face as he surveyed the man. He was several inches shorter than Shane, though that wasn’t out of the ordinary, and he was built like a marble statue. He was wearing gym shorts, and his sneakers looked like they were brand new. His shirt hugged his chest, and Shane noticed that it looked like the sleeves had been cut off with scissors. Either that or the man had simply hulked out of them. Either scenario seemed likely. Shane was fairly certain that he had seen a representation of a Greek god who had the exact same body type in one of Sara’s slideshows. The stranger was still smiling. It was almost blinding.

“No problem.” Shane tried to recover himself, running a hand through his already messy hair. The stranger chuckled, and Shane raised his eyebrows, smirking a little. 

“I’m already so lost and I’ve only been here for a few minutes!” The man laughed at himself, and Shane chuckled. 

“Looking for someone?” Shane’s voice was full of suppressed mirth. 

“Somewhere, actually. I’m Ryan Bergara, the new gym teacher, and I can’t seem to find the gym anywhere.” The man-Ryan-widened his eyes as he looked up at Shane. So this was who the school had gotten to replace Brent Bennett. Thank goodness, that man was utterly dull. Ryan offered his hand, and Shane shook it firmly, still grinning.

“Oh sure. You’re in the right area, you just need to go around that corner and through the double doors and you’ll see the gym.” Shane instructed, gesturing in the direction of the gym. Shane had only set foot in the gym during pep rallies, and only when he was threatened under pain of death to attend. Still, if this was the new gym teacher, he might be persuaded to stop by more often. 

“Thanks!” Ryan took a step forward, in the direction Shane had indicated. “Oh hey, what’s your name, bro?” Shane bit back the laugh that threatened to explode out of him. Bro? Honestly? Were they frat boys now? 

“I’m Shane Madej.” Shane winked at the man, who startled, before turning away and strolling towards the stairwell, leaving the man floundering behind him. 

Shane took the stairs two at a time. He had about an hour before first period began, and he needed to get to his classroom to make sure everything was set up they way he wanted it. When he reached the door to his classroom, room 216, he paused. There was a piece of paper tacked to the door, directly at Shane’s eye-level. At first glance, it appeared to be blank. He snatched it off the door and turned it over. His face broke into a wide smile. It was a portrait of him, looking particularly tall and menacing, wearing what looked like $2 devil horns. He rolled his eyes, but let out a laugh all the same. Sara. Of course Sara couldn’t let the first day of school pass without some kind of pomp and circumstance. There was a note scrawled at the top in Sara’s cramped handwriting.

Don’t scare your students too badly! -SR

Shane grinned again, taking the portrait inside with him. His classroom was set up exactly as he preferred, the desks sitting in neat rows with his desk at the front of the room in front of the whiteboard. He taped the portrait to the center of the whiteboard and set to work preparing for his first period class. 10th grade honors history, which would be comprised entirely of students he hadn’t met before, unlike his later classes, which were mostly Advanced Placement classes, and therefore full of familiar faces. When he was finished preparing, he wrote “MR MADEJ” directly underneath the portrait, and sat, legs folded up underneath him, waiting for his first class to arrive. 

When the class had finally all arrived and had taken their seats, Shane unfurled his legs from beneath him and launched himself off of his desk. Several of the tenth graders gasped, and those in the front row leaned back, shocked. Shane straightened his tie, reveling in the startled looks on his students’ faces. He knocked loudly on the top of his desk. 

“Some people think history is boring… but I think Benjamin Franklin was into some freaky sex stuff.” Every single pair of wide eyes were now fixed on Shane. “Let’s get started, shall we?” 

… 

Kelsey flattened her skirt as she stood in her classroom. It had been too short of a summer. She was happy to be back, and she had missed being at the school, but she missed long summer days sprawled out on the beach. She missed low pressured nights at her favorite bar, meeting new people, seeing where things went. No commitments, no constraints on her time, nothing to keep her from doing whatever she wanted. 

Kelsey reached up with her chalk and wrote the words “All’s well that ends well” on the blackboard in her classroom. She grimaced at the cliched words in front of her, and swiftly erased the board again. That just wouldn’t do, she couldn’t start off the entire year with a cliche writing prompt. She tried again with “when life gives you lemons…” but that wouldn’t work either. Finally, she settled on “so long, sweet summer.” That would do. Her students could potentially respond to that prompt in a variety of ways, plus it would give Kelsey a chance to learn something about her new students. She checked her watch, she still had about 45 minutes before students would start arriving. She took the opportunity to touch up her makeup, but she nearly destroyed her perfectly winged eyeliner when someone suddenly knocked on her door. She took a moment to make sure that she hadn’t actually made too much of a mess of her makeup before heading over to the door to her classroom. She opened it, and her heart very nearly skipped a beat. 

“Jen!” She exclaimed, taking a step to the side and allowing the other woman to enter her classroom. Jen grinned at Kelsey, nearly tripping over the rug Kelsey had put in the doorway. 

“Hey, Kelsey.” Jen said, smiling in that self deprecating way she had. Kelsey thought her heart might actually explode. Jen seemed to have gotten impossibly cuter over the summer, she was wearing green converse, dress pants, a button up shirt and a blazer, complete with a pair of thick glasses with black plastic rims. Interesting, the glasses she had last year had been metal. The change suited her. “How was your summer? Mine was good, I ended up going to Seattle with Steven for a few days, which was really cool, I don’t usually travel but it was nice to see new stuff. It kept raining though, I wonder if Seattle really is rainy all the time, because it seems like it must be. We were there for five days and it actually ended up raining every single day we were there…” Jen continued to ramble, and Kelsey would have normally tuned out by now, but this was Jen, so she hung on her every word. 

Kelsey didn’t have crushes. She had conquests. She might be attracted to someone, but she’d take that person out, see where things went, and then move on. She certainly didn’t have infatuations that lasted more than a few months, definitely none that lasted over three years. So what if she liked the way Jen’s face moved? So what if she would have given up her Fenty foundation for a chance to make Jen laugh? It’s not like it was serious or anything. It wasn’t a problem! 

“So anyway Seattle had really great coffee and I’m terrible at making coffee so I went to the new cafe around the corner today and I was thinking in the about how you mentioned last year that you were a fan of those cinnamon lattes and I always thought it was weird how cinnamon is literally tree bark that everyone just accepts is the most delicious thing in the world but anyway I figured since it was the first day of school you might like one and since it’s still technically summer I got yours iced!” Jen held out a beautifully crafted latte, complete with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Kelsey stared at her, incredulous. 

“You got this for me?” She said, sounding stupider than she would have liked.

“Yeah, of course! Though if you don’t like them anymore you could always have mine, it’s mocha instead of cinnamon but it has almond milk which I know isn’t everybody’s favorite but-”

“No it’s perfect!” Kelsey interrupted, turning a shade of red that had nothing to do with the Benefit blush she had just applied. “Thank you, Jen, seriously, this is just what I needed.” Jen smiled again, looking up at Kelsey through her eyelashes-and honestly? They were on school property it wasn’t fair of Jen to look this good this early in the morning.

“Good! Anyway, I’ll see you around! Have a good first day!” Jen rushed out of the classroom, this time tripping for real over the rug. Kelsey resolved to move it, especially if Jen was going to visit her again. 

A few minutes later, Kelsey’s students started to arrive. Kelsey smiled at all of them as they entered the classroom, taking a seat around the circle of desks Kelsey had set up. Kelsey took a final sip of her cinnamon latte and sighed blissfully before turning and addressing her students. 

“Welcome to Creative Writing, let’s get started with our first prompt of the year…” And as Kelsey read out the prompt and monitored her students’ progress, feeling refreshed after her coffee, she thought about how saying so long to summer might not be so terrible after all. After all, fall tended to have that cinnamon-y, warm sort of sweetness to it.


	2. Andrew and Sara's First Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara and Adam are best buddies as far as I'm concerned.

Andrew woke up on his favorite day of the year with knots of anxious energy in his stomach. He poured himself a coffee (black, to go, as always) and threw on his outfit (dark blue dress pants, striped grey sweater, a variation of the similar outfits he wore every Monday). He listened to NPR on his way to school that morning, one window rolled down, relishing in the way the light morning breeze delicately ruffled his hair. He was early, he was always early. He had his morning schedule down to a science, and nothing could disrupt him from his routine.

To say that Andrew was a creature of habit would be an understatement. Andrew thrives on creating order out of chaos, and the morning of the first day of school had heaps of chaotic potential energy. He had known what he was going to wear that morning for a week, had ground his coffee and set it up to brew the night before. Every step was carefully planned out, it was nearly formulaic.

Andrew hadn’t planned on Steven Lim.

As Andrew pulled into the parking lot of the high school he was forced to slam on the breaks as a figure stepped almost directly in front of his car. He cursed under his breath as the man straightened up. Steven. Steven in a full suit. With rose gold hair no less. Andrew cursed again. Steven straightened up, having apparently tripped trying to get out of the way. He peered into the car window and grinned widely at Andrew. Andrew gave a courteous little wave before swerving around him, determinedly not looking at him as he pulled into his parking spot. Andrew pulled his leather messenger bag onto his shoulder and got out of the car, still looking straight ahead. He shut his door with a snap and marched himself toward the school.

“Andrew! Hey! Andrew!” Steven was shouting at him. Andrew could pretend he hadn’t heard, could just walk right into school and ignore the puppy-dog-turned-human that was Steven Lim. It probably would have been in Andrew’s own best interest to keep walking, but he always had been a little bit of a self-saboteur. He turned to see Steven jogging up to him.

“Good morning, Steven.” He acknowledged, taking care to keep his tone as formal as possible, even as his stomach clenched as Steven reached him, eyes wide. “Sorry about that. Didn’t even see you.” Steven laughed. Damn him.

“No worries! I figured I came out of nowhere!” Steven clapped a hand on Andrew’s shoulder, and Andrew could have shrieked. He swallowed thickly.

“Did you…did you walk here?” Andrew asked, and Steven fell into stride with him as they neared the building. He didn’t see Steven’s car anywhere in the parking lot. Not that he knew what Steven’s car looked like.

“Yeah! My car has totally shut down, so I decided to walk instead of calling an Uber.” He wasn’t even sweaty. Andrew could have strangled him. “I don’t know anything about cars, but it won’t start and I’ve given up. I wanted to give myself more time to walk, but I guess I’m still pretty early.”

“Uber early, one might say.” Andrew quipped back, and glanced up at Steven to see him rolling his eyes good naturedly. A grin spread over Andrew’s face despite his best efforts. They walked through the doors of the school together, and Andrew sighed as the air conditioning hit him. His sweater was perfect for how frigid the school was, but it wasn’t ideal for the sweltering heat that lingered outside.

“Anyway, I’m this way.” Steven said as they entered, gesturing towards the science wing. Andrew grinned again.

“And I’m this way.” He waved an arm towards the social studies hall.

“See you around then, Andrew.” Steven gripped his forearm before turning away from Andrew. Don’t say it, don’t say it, don’t say it. Andrew pleaded with himself, but he couldn’t stop himself.

“Steven!” He called and Steven swung around, a grin already on his face.

“Yeah?”

“Listen, if your-if your car is laid up. I could give you a ride? Just until it’s fixed, you know?” Andrew nearly hated himself for offering, but the smile that burst from Steven made it all worth it.

“Really?” He asked, gleefully.

“Yeah. Why not?” Andrew carefully kept his voice in his usual monotone. If he didn’t, he was concerned he’d squeal.

“I’d love that! I’ve been trying to justify it by saying it’s healthier, but honestly? I hate walking!” Steven tilted his head. “Thank you so much!” Andrew cleared his throat.

“No problem. I’ll see you after school, then.” He cringed at the hopeful lilt to his voice.

“You know it! Have a good first day, Andrew!” Steven replied, flashing him another smile before turning away.

Andrew shook his head at his own stupidity before finally making his way to the social studies hall at last. It was stupid, really, to have offered to drive Steven. He had been inexplicably drawn to the man ever since his first day of teaching. Steven was like a magnet.

Alright, Ilnyckyj, no more delays. He told himself, taking a short cut through the arts wing to get to his classroom. He glanced into every classroom as he passed, curious to see who else had gotten to school as early as he had. All of the classrooms were empty except for one. Andrew passed the Home Economics classroom and saw a bearded man who he had only seen in passing before. He watched the man write “Mr. Bianchi” on the board, transfixed by the deep red of the man’s hair, and the certainty with which his hands moved across the whiteboard. The man turned around abruptly, and their eyes met. Mr. Bianchi, whoever he was, raised a hand in silent greeting, peering owlishly at Andrew behind hornrimmed glasses. Andrew’s cheeks warmed as he waved back, embarrassed to have been caught staring. He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts, before setting off again in the direction of his classroom.

Alright that’s enough. He told himself. That’s enough, now.

He reached the safety of his classroom and breathed a sigh of relief at the familiarity, and began to get set up for the day.

…

Sara signed her note to Shane with a small smirk on her face before ruffling her curly hair and flouncing away, her long skirt dragging on the floor behind her. She and and Shane had been best friends for years now, and Sara loved teasing him about nearly everything, and she simply couldn’t pass up an opportunity to do it on the first day of school. She hurried down the stairs, nearly colliding with Jen Ruggirello on her way. Jen apologized and Sara smiled at her, she was carrying two coffees and looked even more flustered than normal, so Sara let it slide without any teasing.

Sara reached the art wing, and took a moment to pause by the Home Ec classroom. Adam was already there, as she suspected he would be. Adam didn’t ever have a lot to say to her, in fact many of the other teachers thought he never spoke at all, but Sara liked Adam. They often graded assignments together during free period. Sara needed quiet, she was introverted to a fault, and often needed to steal a few peaceful minutes in the course of the day. Adam could always provide that for her. She knocked on his door and let herself in. Adam turned around, his eyes crinkling, the corners of his mustache twitching.

“Happy first day, Adam.” Sara said, crossing over to where he stood.

“You too.” He agreed, and held out his hand. Sara gripped it, and Adam squeezed once before letting go. It wasn’t weird, it was a grounding ritual they had perfected over the years.

“I’ll see you later, okay?” Sara reassured, letting go of Adam’s hand. Adam nodded before turning back to his desk. Sara left without another word.

Once she reached her own classroom, Sara sighed contentedly. She switched on her favorite Halloween playlist, it was never too late to start celebrating her favorite holiday, climbed up to sit on top of her desk, and waited for her new students to arrive.


	3. More Shane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hey what's up I TOLD you I hadn't abandoned this. anyway this chapter is dedicated to that one anon who asked me on my tumblr if i was the author of this fic. This chapter, and the wine I consumed in order to bring it about, goes out to you and your beautiful face.

The first student Shane called in was short. Everyone was short when it came to Shane, but this girl looked to be about half of his height. She was in his AP World History class, and sat right at the back. Her long curly hair always blocked Shane from getting decent eye contact with her while he was lecturing, and he was concerned because she seemingly refused to speak up in class. There was always a few students like this, which is why Shane dedicated his lunch hours during the entire first month of term to meeting with every single one of his students individually. Despite what Sara might joke around about, he didn’t actually want to scare his students…not too badly, anyway. 

 

Shane stepped aside as Ella approached the doorway. He grinned, the corners of his eyes scrunching, but Ella barely even looked at him before scurrying over to his desk and taking a seat. Shane sighed. Every single one of his students were ambitious and smart. However, as he knew only too well after years of experience, that often came with high expectations, which often came with anxiety. Shane shut the door and crossed the classroom with a few long strides, sitting on the opposite side of the desk and taking out his lunch.

 

“You don’t mind if I munch while we talk, do you?” He pulled out his peanut butter and jelly, glancing up at Ella, who promptly dropped her gaze to her lap. She shook her head quickly. “Cool, you got a lunch? Please tell me you have a lunch or else I’m going to look like a big ol’ dummy sitting here with my sandwich and yogurt.” Ella chanced a glance up at Shane again, and Shane was careful to keep his face distinctly friendly and nonthreatening. Ella nodded, before pulling out her own lunch from the confines of her over-filled backpack. “So, Ella, you got anything better than a pb+j because I’m not above swapping.” Ella glanced up mouth agape. Shane knew the kind of persona he put off during class. He was tall, he scowled too much, and he had a tendency to shout when he got into history, and that often caused students to have anxiety about talking to him or asking him questions. And, well, that just wouldn’t do. He was an AP History teacher, he needed his students to know that they could ask questions and not feel stupid for doing so, he wanted them to feel free to speak their minds during his class and help guide the conversation. It was more fun that way, after all. Once Ella’s incredulity had worn off a little, she was able to answer him.

 

“I’ve…I’ve got…um…looks like olive loaf, honestly.” She stuttered, peeling apart her sandwich with an air of utter disinterest. 

 

“Gross.” Shane remarked dryly, then laughed just to remind her that he was kidding. She chuckled, then stopped abruptly, as though realizing what she was doing. “I’ll keep my sandwich, if that’s all the same to you." 

 

"Probably safer that way.” She replied, glancing up at Shane again. Shane took a massive bite out of his sandwich and eyed Ella before continuing.

 

“So, Ella, what interested you in World History?” This was a superfluous question, one that Shane didn’t really care to know the answer to, but it got students talking, and Ella was no exception.

 

“Well, I mean, it’s great to get some credits out of the way for college? Yknow? So I’m, like, I’m taking this and three other APs this semester, um. So. Maybe that’ll help, my sister said it helped her when she went to school.” Shane nodded, sagely. 

 

“Sure, of course. What colleges are you looking into? What do you want to study?” And with that, Ella took off. The conversation continued without hardly any more work on Shane’s part. He listened and nodded and made comments and suggestions at all the right places, and by the time she left Ella looked much more confident. Shane plucked two books off his bookshelf, one about powerful female figures throughout history, the other a brief history of Pride in the local city, and handed them to Ella on her way out the door. She practically beamed, and already had her nose deep in one of the books when she was halfway down the hall. 

 

Shane sighed and checked his watch. He still had about twenty minutes. He grabbed the remainder of his sandwich and meandered down toward the art wing, taking care to pass by the massive windows into the gymnasium on his way down the hallway. Sure enough, Ryan Bergara was down there, with his usual gaggle of fans. He had amassed quite a little following of students in his short time at the school. Some were sophomore girls who wanted to get fit and kick ass, especially after having watched the newest Star Wars, there were plenty of girls who wanted to do what Rey could do. Some were kids on the wrestling team who wanted to cut weight. Some were gym rats who wanted to bulk out. Ryan had taken it upon himself to write up mini workouts for each kid who came to him, and there was now a little quasi weight club that met in the gym during lunch. The group were all sitting crosslegged on the gym floor, eating various salads and sipping various protein shakes. That was Ryan’s one rule, they could work out, but everyone had to bring (and eat lunch). At least, that’s what Shane had heard through the grapevine. To his utter horror, Ryan chose that moment to glance out the window, and saw Shane practically drooling in the hallway. Ryan grinned his thousand watt grin, and Shane raised an arm in halfhearted greeting. He was bringing his arm down slowly when it was nearly yanked out of his socket. He was dragged away, skidding along behind his assailant as they manhandled him into a classroom. Shane looked down and saw a familiar shock of purple hair.

 

“Sara!” He said, delighted by the sudden appearance of his miniature friend. “I was just coming down to see you." 

 

"You were staring again, it’s starting to get more than a little creepy.” She remarked, hopping up to sit cross legged on the desk. Shane looked around.

 

“This isn’t your classroom.” He observed, and Sara slow clapped it our for him. 

 

“Give this man a prize, huh?” She projected, surveying the room as if it held a large crowd. It didn’t, but it also dawned on Shane that they weren’t quite alone, either. He noticed a few stove sets and refrigerators across the room, and Adam Bianchi stood at one, wearing oven mitts, sticking a toothpick into a pan.

 

“Oh, hey Adam.” Adam glanced up at him and raised a single eyebrow in greeting. “Good to see you, too.”

 

“Adam made s'mores brownies. Top secret recipe. I told him I knew another guinea pig for him to test them on.” Shane’s eyes went wide. “Oh so you’re into the idea? What would Bergara say? Is this your cheat day?”

 

“Oh shut up and bring on the brownies.” Shane said, shoving Sara’s sweater clad shoulder. Adam and Sara snickered, but Adam still delivered a plate of brownies and a fork to the pair of them, keeping one for himself. The dug in simultaneously.

 

“Holy mother of pearl.” Sara said, sighing deeply as she closed her eyes. Shane had to agree.

 

“Adam, these brownies are an honest to god miracle.” Adam just grinned.

 

“Mhmm.” He said, nodding contentedly.

 

“Listen, if you ever need another guinea pig for anything whatsoever, PLEASE call me.” Shane insisted, throwing the remainder of his proper lunch into the garbage without a second look. Adam nodded seriously, before snatching Shane and Sara’s plates out of their hands and returning with another helping of brownies.


	4. Steven Lim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Adam stares at Steven, Steven stares back, and Steven blushes pretty hard thinking about Andrew. Also don't heat your coffee on a Bunsen burner!!!

Steven peered into his coffee mug. One particular strand of hair was giving him trouble today, and he could see that it had once again strayed from its assigned position in his dark reflection in the cold coffee. He fluffed up his hair, smiling with triumph as he felt his hair fall back into its perfect shape. He glanced around, the staffroom was nearly empty, most people had classes during second period. The only other person in the room was one of the Home Economics teachers. The man was shorter than Steven, with a curly red beard and horn-rimmed glasses. He was wearing two sweaters, which seemed like overkill, but Steven could appreciate the aesthetic. The man was staring directly at him, he didn’t even seem to be blinking. Steven sidled over to him.

“Hey!” He said nudging the man’s left shoulder with his right. The man just nodded. “I’m Steven, I don’t think I’ve actually seen you around much. You don’t have a class second period?” The man shook his head, and shrugged a little. Steven grinned at him, and didn’t stop looking at him until he saw the corner of the man’s mouth twitch. Victory! “Well, I, unfortunately, do have a class second period.” The man turned to him, his eyes comically wide. He looked like some kind of deeply concerned owl. It was only three minutes past the start of the period, Steven knew his students would wait for him, it wasn’t like they could go anywhere. “But, hey, I’ll see you around, mysteriously silent Home-Ec guy.” He pushed himself off the counter where he had been leaning, and started to head out of the staffroom.

“My name’s Adam.” Steven whirled around on the heel of his dress shoe. He didn’t pretend not to hear him, but he now wore a grin wider than Adam had previously thought possible. 

“Bianchi, right?” Steven clarified, and Adam nodded. “Good to officially meet you, Adam Bianchi!” The corner of Adam’s mouth twitched again, and Steven turned back around and finally headed out of the staffroom. He crossed the hallway, and took a deep breath before bounding into the classroom.

“Morning, all!” He exclaimed to his bleary-eyed students. He reached the front of the classroom, turned the switch at the bottom of the lab table at the front of the class until he heard the gas begin to flow, then grabbed a safety spark from out of his suit jacket and flicked it over top of the Bunsen burner that sat on top of the lab table. A flame sprung to life immediately, and that woke his students right up. He grinned at them before holding his cold coffee mug over the burner until his coffee once again reached a drinkable temperature. His students looked at him with wide eyes. “Today we’ll be exploring three drastically different compounds with three drastically different boiling points to see which one can be most easily identified by the boiling method. Let’s get started, shall we?”

Without further ado, he broke his students up into lab groups, and gave them three mystery compounds and a Bunsen burner. The lab went remarkably well, considering it was so early in the year. 

“Mr. Lim!” He looked up to see one of his students raising his hand desperately high in the air.

“What’s up, David?” He asked, coming over to lean down on the table so he could hear the boy properly over all the lab-day commotion.

“I was just wondering, y’know, since we’re boiling things?” He looked up at Steven, who just nodded, showing he was on the same page. “Well, obviously things go from liquid to gas pretty easily, but can things ever go from a solid to a gas?” 

“That’s an awesome question, David.” He responded, and the kid’s eyes basically lit up. “Hang on one second. Class! Hey! Everyone!” The waited until he had everyone’s eyes on him. “David just asked a really great question, and you all know what it’s time for. David, you want to do the honors?” David chuckled a little.

“SCIENCE FACT!” He shouted, and the class gave a smattering of polite applause. They’d only had a few days of the semester, but Steven had already shown them the ropes of how he liked to run his classroom. “Hit us with a Science Fact, Mr. Lim!” Steven was happy to oblige. 

“David asked if matter can ever go from a solid to a gas. It can! That process is called ‘sublimation.’ Matter can also go from a gas to a solid, which is called ‘deposition.’ These processes are very interesting, but they’re a little bit more advanced than what we’re going to be doing in our class!” Steven took a mock bow before motioning for everyone to get back to what they were working on before he interrupted. 

“Thanks, Mr. Lim!” David exclaimed, before turning back to his own lab group. Steven grinned. 

The rest of the day proceeded in a similar fashion. The first day of lab work was always more than a little hectic, and by the end of the day Steven was exhausted. He took his time packing up what was left over from fifth period, and he was just stacking up the completed packets he’d handed out for the lab day when he heard a knock on his classroom door. He spun around, Andrew was leaning against the door frame. 

“Oh! Hey!” He said, smiling at him. Andrew looked almost physically pained before he gave him a smile in return.

“Hey.” Andrew replied in his deep rumble. “I just didn’t see you after school. If you still…” He trailed off, and ran a hand through his dirty blonde hair before sighing deeply. “Need a ride?” 

Steven smiled at him again. Truthfully, he’d gotten his car squared away two days ago, but he wasn’t going to pass up on the opportunity to ride with Andrew for a few more days. The man was legitimately gorgeous, and he was just so fun to look at in the mornings. Steven blew the stubborn piece of hair out of his face with a huff. Andrew looked at him, utterly hopelessly. There was something in his hazel eyes that Steven couldn’t quite place. He kind of liked it. 

“Thanks for waiting! I know you’ve got a pretty rigid schedule.” Steven winked at him, shoving the packets in his black leather messenger bag before slinging it over his shoulder. Andrew gulped audibly. “I’d love a ride.” Steven was thankful his back was to Andrew because he was sure his face was pinker than his hair after that remark. He turned back to Andrew once he’d gotten his face under control. “Ready?” Andrew looked like he’d been woken from a daze. 

“Yeah, let’s go.”


End file.
